The Gold Dust Twins

Growing up, I remember fondly listening to crazy stories about my grandfather and his younger brother Bob, who were called the Gold Dust twins. They were only separated by about a year, and they got into plenty of mischief together.

I have my own set of Gold Dust twins, and although they're separated by two years, there's not much more that could separate them. They're tighter than glue.

Anyway, we were in the car the other day, and I just sat there listening to the two of them conversing. Here's a sample:

Benny: Hey, Andrew, what did the elephant say to the armadillo?

Andrew: Nothing, they can't talk.

Benny (trying again): What did Batman say to Robin?

Andrew: You're not real.

Looking at the expression on Andrew's face, I knew he was enjoying being a pest. Anyway, the conversation keeps going with various comments such as:

Andrew (out of the blue): I want a pet fox. Or maybe a pet raccoon.

Benny: When I grow up I'm going to have a pet bear with a collar covered in spikes on it. It's going to be trained by me to attack anyone who comes on my property without permission.

Andrew: I want to be an Indian.

Benny: Why?

Andrew: So I can hunt Buffalo.

...and on it goes. The conversation flits from one interesting/serious/foolish subject to another. It tends to get stuck on foolish quite a bit, unfortunately.

They are ther own exclusive club. Occasionally, if there's a spat, Joey or Rachel or Sam gets to join up with one or the other of the Gold Dust twins, and then there are warring factions. It all eventually calms down though, and then everything is back to normal. The Gold Dust twins forgive (maybe) and forget (probably) and get back to the fun of their exclusive club.

I don't know what they would do without one another.

By Mama

Rachel Wins A Ribbon

...and not just any old ribbon. She won Best Of Show for her jalapeno peppers that she entered into the Marion County Fair. When she found out that Best of Show winners received a 25 dollar check, she was beaming! Rachel has decided that she wants to raise rabbits, so now she has the money to get started.

Sorry about the picture quality, my camera isn't working, and this is from a cell phone camera.

Mission Accomplished!

Well, Benny and I made 3 gallons of lacto-fermented salsa with our abundance of tomatoes and peppers. We were able to use our own onions this year, too! The only thing we had to buy was cilantro. It got too hot too early and our cilantro went to seed already.

Sam helped as well. His job was to push the pulse button on the food processor. It was the perfect job for him, and he was very proud of his contribution.

Interested in preserving lacto-fermented vegetables? Click here:

http://www.nourishingdays.com/?p=1883

Time to make salsa!

...and we haven't even finished picking, yet!

Duty and Honor

Today is Memorial Day, and while I know that Memorial Day is traditionally the time to honor those who gave their lives in battle for their country, I want to take this time to honor the memory of my Grandfather, Kye Harris, who served honorably in World War II. He didn't lose his life for his country, but he did give his body. My grandfather was injured numerous times in battle, and the shrapnel in his body bore witness to this fact for many, many years.

Granddaddy was one of my childhood heroes, and the stories of his childhood are now familiar to my own children. He first tried to enlist at 14 years old, but when the Navy found out his true age, they sent him home. Undaunted, when he turned 15, he enlisted in the Marines, with the support of his mother. The family story is that the Marine recuiter said to him, "If you're stupid enough to join, we're stupid enough to take you."

I have a 15 year old son. The thought of sending him off to war brings me to tears, but if he grows up to be the kind of man that my Granddaddy was, I would do it in a second. I have great confidence that my sons will grow up to be strong, faithful men of God, because they have had a tremendous heritage of a faithful father, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers who instilled in our family a desire to "...do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with thy God."

My Grandfather was one of the survivors of the Battle of Iwo Jima. I am so awed by the courage and honor of the men who fought at Iwo Jima, especially as I learn more about the immense horrors of that campaign. I know that alot of veterans don't look at themselves as heroic, they just saw themselves as doing their job, doing their duty. I think that is one of the reasons why they were such heroes. They did their job, their duty, in the face of enormous odds, unthinkable danger, and overwhelming carnage. Yet they still jumped out of those boats, climbed up those mountainsides, and did their duty.

Granddaddy was very proud to be a Marine, and he took great affront when someone misspoke and asked if he had been in the Army. We grandchildren knew NEVER to say that!

We stood in awe of Granddaddy, and were always delighted to receive a loving hug or a silly song that he would make up about one of us on the spot. He was young at heart, always participating in the family volleyball or basketball games. He had the knack to win a 200 hand in Rook when most of us would never have even tried to bid!

Granddaddy was a devoted husband, always treating my Grandmother like the beautiful lady that she was. He was a loving father that raised up 5 honorable children, one of whom is my mother. Most important of all, my Granddaddy was a true man of God, determined to do his duty, no matter how hard, and no matter what the cost.

I am forever grateful to be born into a family with such a Godly heritage. My Grandfather was the standard-bearer, diligently training up his children in the way they should go. He faithfully shepherded my father and was his mentor. He imparted wisdom and instruction to his grandchildren, and has left a beautiful legacy of faithfulness to the generations yet to come.

Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of being the granddaughter of Kye Harris.

Posted by Katie

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Well, I hear the pleasant sound of busy little honeybees buzzing in their hives. We recently added several thousand new apiary residents to our farm. Yup, we got bees.

In our ongoing effort to continue down the road to self-sufficiency, we decided to add bees to our homestead. Last year, we noticed that we had some pollination problems in the garden, so we decided that getting bees could help us with pollination, and eventually provide us with our own honey.

Finding the bees proved a bit more difficult than we expected. There seems to be a bit of a bee shortage around this area, and they also seem to be in high demand. Anyway, after doing alot of research and finding a supplier, we got 3 "nucs" of bees. I don't really know what a "nuc" is, I just know that the three boxes we got were called "nucs".

We were able to find a local man who makes bee hives, and the boys picked the three hives up last week.

Setting up the hives. Robert only let Benny help, because he figured that would be safer. That's why they are the only ones in the pictures. Everyone else was standing behind me, watching intently, ready to dash away in case the bees decided to be un-cooperative!

Smoking the bees to keep them calm. It seemed to work, as no one got stung!

Removing the bees from the "nuc". We are absolute novices when it comes to bees, so please bear with us if we use improper terminology.

This one had honeycomb already formed!

Benny was very impressed, and was later dipping the comb into some honey that we had so he could eat it.

All hail the queen! She's right in the middle, being waited on by her loyal subjects.

My very brave husband, handling the bees slowly and cautiously with no protective gear.

Well, that's all the time I have for today. I hope y'all enjoyed the pictures of our new endeavor!

Katie

It's Garden Time!

The sun is shining, a comfortable breeze is blowing, the tractor is running...it's garden time!

I love this time of year, when we all get outside and work together as a family in the garden. I am especially grateful for Robert's desire to get the garden planted in a neat, orderly manner. I think he does a much, much better job at planning, measuring, and laying out the plants than I ever could.

We have four large garden beds right now, one has perennials like asparagus, raspberries and blackberries in it. The other three are for the annual vegetables. We're tilling up another area (about half an acre) for rangy, space-consuming crops like melons, cucumbers and corn. I am so looking forward to lots of cantaloupe and honeydew melon!

We also planted some more peach trees this year. Hopefully these will do better than the ones planted (under my supervision) last year!

This year for the first time, we started some of our own seedlings. The kids were engrossed with watching and helping Robert with this new endeavor!

Well, this next picture has nothing to do with gardening, but it sure is cute!

If you can make out the lettering on the shirt, you'll agree with the statement completely!

Katie

Finger Lickin' Good???

Yes, dear readers, this is another fun-filled post about the -ahem- interesting things that resourceful young boys find and do in the great woods of Arkansas!

Before I recount this episode, let me give you a bit of background info. The boys-- all of them - love watching a show called, "Survivorman", about a man who goes into a different hostile environment every show and survives with only the items in his pockets or backpack. While we don't have TV, we do have the ability to watch certain things online. "Survivorman" is something we deem worth watching, and it's actually a pretty interesting show.

Anyway, Andrew was "surviving" in the hostile environment of the Arkansas woods, and decided that he needed to get something to eat. Soooo, he hunted himself up a turtle, whacked it with a rock (bet you couldn't do that, Survivorman!), cleaned it somehow, and -- drum roll, please -- roasted it over a fire!!!!!

Yes. He. Ate. It.

He very graciously offered R.G. and me some of the roasted delicacy. As he was handing a charred piece to his big brother, R.G. asked if he had actually tasted the turtle and Andrew nodded yes.

Big, tough, cowboy R.G. responded, "You're a bigger man than me!", and politely declined the offering. So did I. At least I could blame my lack of turtle appetite on my pregnancy!

I'm afraid that Andrew was a bit disappointed with his sissy family. But, as R.G. reminded everyone, if things ever get really bad, Andrew is going to be the one with the full stomach!

Mama

Samuel

Samuel was getting ready to walk out the door and check for eggs. Here was our conversation.

Mama: Samuel, don't walk outside in your socks.

Samuel: I not. I walking in my feet!

He then proceeded to show me his bare feet!

I guess I thought that was cute enough to run in here and post!

Mama

And The Answer is...

Yes, yes yes! God has chosen to bless us with another girl! Rachel is delighted, of course, and the boys are fine with it either way. However, Daniel was a little disappointed because he already had a (horrible) name picked out.

The only way I could actually tell it was a girl was because the kind sonogram man typed "female" on the screen for me!

Thanks for caring enough to check back and find out!

Katie

I Got A Sonogram.....

Here are some of the pictures.

The cute little baby toes. The sonogram man was actually able to count all the toes. It was so amazing! (Yes, the baby has five on each feet.)

The cute little baby profile.

I was proudly showing the pictures off to Daniel and he patiently said, "Hmmm, that's, um, great, Mama." He obviously wasn't reveling in the moment.

Well, I have purposely left out the sex of the baby in hopes that we can up our traffic for a few days by teasing our readers with that famous tagline...

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK!!! OR MAYBE SOONER!!!

Warning -- Disgusting Post!!

Hello, y'all! Today, I thought I'd share with my (3) readers another exciting adventure with the Millers.

We have chickens...lots of chickens. Chickens attract wildlife...lots of wildlife.

We like our chickens and feel a deep burden to protect them from the evil world that lurks beyond the safe haven of their chicken yard.

We have wildlife...lots of wildlife. Wildlife with long rat-like noses, almost-human feet and sickeningly-scaly prehensile tails. Have I described well enough the nasty, grotesque creature that is the object of my disgust?

Yes, it is the Opossum, or 'possum if you're dialectically inclined. (I am.)

I hate possums. They disgust me, if you hadn't noticed from earlier in the post. The funny(?) thing about this possum aversion is that my nickname as a child, which I remember with great fondness, was of all things...possum. Patty Possum to be exact.

Anyway, back to the "Great Adventure". Benny and Andrew went down to milk the cow this morning and Andrew came running back yelling at the top of his lungs, "Matthew, there's a possum in the feed bin." Matthew, with his hands ever itching for the feel of cold, hard, steel, grabbed a gun and ran down to "remove the wildlife from the premises".

(If he was reading this, Matthew would be loudly proclaiming that it wasn't just A gun, it was a 30 something, double aught, 22 gauge so-and-so. But I digress.)

Well, the wildlife was removed, and Benny and Andrew proudly showed me their bounty. Blech. Andrew actually had the audacity to ask if he could eat the revolting creature.

Anyway, we went back to normal life, finished the rest of the morning chores (don't I sound like Ma Ingalls!) and started school. Andrew and Joey then went to check one of Andrew's traps, and this time Joey came running back with the very urgent message that...you guessed it, Andrew caught yet another possum in his trap. (It must be an unspoken rule that the younger child is required to do all the message running.)

Matthew again grabbed a some-sort-or-other gun and became a bonifide Wildlife Removal Specialist. Of course, all the children, including my sweet Rachel, had to go watch the "removal". Again, the proud hunters brought back their disgusting quarry, but this time with a bonus??!!

See below to find out what the "bonus" was.

Did you guess "the rat-like, hairless, squirming, undeveloped possum young"??

If you did , you're a winner! The boys discovered that their were babies living in the possum's pouch. Andrew and Benny actually had the audacity to ask if they could "keep them". When I asked them what they would feed them, they said, "their mother's milk". Sadly, I had to inform them the the mother wasn't going to keep producing milk because THE MOTHER WAS DEAD.

You know, I normally have a great deal of compassion for baby animals. But I can truthfully say that I felt NO compassion, and maybe even a bit of glee, when I saw those pitiful, pink, wriggling babies and realized they weren't long for this world. I guess that makes me a possum Sadist.

So, here are a few slightly bloody pictures of the boys with their possums and Matthew with his dearly beloved...I mean his "Wildlife Removal Tool".

Well, if this post didn't disgust you, then you've got a stronger stomach than me! I'd better go now, I've got two possums waiting for a skinnin and a cookin! Ha ha!

(That's really not very funny, and I think typing that made my morning sickness recur.)

Mama

Please Vote For Us!

We've decided to run for the "Most Boring Blog On The Web", and we desperately need your vote! We have no cute wallpaper, no cute baby-ticker, no interesting, pithy sayings on the sidebar (if that is even the correct term), no blog roll, no nuthin. We are boring, boring borrrrrrring.

I absolutely love to decorate houses, but I won't even commit to decorating my house unless I'm ready to jump in with both feet and get it done. I guess I'm the same with the blog. It may be a very bad case of perfectionism creeping into my blog-world. I refused to decorate the house in Alturas for 2 years because I wasn't sure how long we were going to live there. You'd think the two-year mark would have been a hint that it was time to hang a few pictures! Anyway, I do plan on having the blog for a good while, but I still sometimes think of it as R.G.'s leftover blog that I am just using, thus I haven't quite committed to make it all mine.

I think I shall attempt to take complete ownership of said blog and begin to decorate it. Maybe a sidebar here, a blogroll there. I don't know, I may even hang a complicated wallpaper that makes the text somewhat difficult to read (that's a hint to some of the other blog decorators out there!). I might even start posting photos again!

Anyway, thanks to all our (3) readers for still taking the time to read the blog, even when it is visually unpalatable!

Katie

Life is Wonderful!

Life is wonderful on a regular basis here, but it got a little bit more wonderful several weeks ago when we found out that we are expecting another baby!

My due date is sometime in early August, and I'm planning on seeing the midwife this coming week.

I have had some not-so-fun morning sickness. To be more accurate, I've had quite a bit of miserable all-day sickness, but it's slowly getting better, and I'm thankful for the chance to have morning sickness again!

Well, that's about all I can think of to say about the situation without waxing poetic and having lullaby music playing in the background. Not that I don't like waxing poetic with lullaby music playing in the background, but I'm afraid I'm just not mentally up to the challenge and I would end up writing some twaddle that would bring me much literary humiliation in the future.

Anyway, we are rejoicing in our soon-to-be 9th child!